Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi Episode 3 Anime Review

A tall order.

Wow. This episode is the reason why I stick around watching anime I’m meh about in the first episode. The payoff here was huge! Hampnie was, as expected, Ai’s dad, despite his young looks – because he’s an immortal. What made the show here was the timing and direction of the anime, where they have Ai come in to save her dad while describing her mother. The sudden realisation that comes over Hampnie was just sublime to watch.

The flashback sequence showed the villagers as having wounds that could not heal, and one of the gang members that kidnapped Hampnie had lots of stitches on her face, so that’s probably what happens to those who are dead. They decompose while still retaining their memories, feelings, and dreams when they were alive. This all happens while Yuri comes in guns-ablazing in a pretty slick move.

And finally, at the end of the episode, Hampnie is shown to have finally passed away, and come back as a dead. Ai spends one day with him and Hampnie’s wish is granted, where he’s put to rest by his daughter and friends wishing he was still around.

It’s a very interesting take on the zombie genre. What happens if the people you love come back with memories and everything else intact? Only their body can’t heal, and they don’t eat brains or pose a threat to you unless they were evil in the first place. I think the only telling trait so far is the light in their eyes, according to the anime. Hampnie’s eyes looked duller when he came back.

Choosing to die with dignity over living as a shell of your former self. Choosing to live as a shell of your former self and take care of a little girl over dying peacefully. The episode touched on all these issues and brought it clearer to my mind as a viewer in that one flashback. Really well done. It was difficult to watch Ai spend one happy day with her father and then bury him.

What I really like about this is that this happened in episode 3! Usually, you would expect the two of them to go on a journey and do shenanigans until this is the final crowning episode. But nope, whack her dad dead in episode 3, so viewers develop sympathy for her, and move on to the next story. Wow. Phenomenal pacing. I wonder what the next story will be.